New research from Social Bakers seems to point to a major step forward in social customer service, with more and more companies answering questions posed to them on Facebook and Twitter. Brands have more than doubled their response rates between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, up from answering 30% of questions to 62%. Back in 2011 the figure was just 5%.Airlines led the way, answering 79% of queries, follow...
Sales on the High Street continue to be squeezed by online rivals – and the growth of smartphones is opening another front in the battle for revenues. Increasingly shoppers are using mobiles while in-store to showroom, testing products and comparing offline and online prices before choosing where to spend their money.Research from TNS demonstrates the scale of showrooming – but also wh...
As companies embrace fast-growing channels such as social media there’s a perception that these essentially replace older methods of communication. In some cases this is true, but it is important to realise that consumers don’t automatically move to new channels just because they are there. After all, if that was the case no-one would be calling your contact centre any more.What consum...
Companies now have access to huge amounts of data on their customers. Particularly online, they can see the entire customer journey, purchase history and the channels used across every transaction. The vast majority of companies also collect customer feedback, which should provide the perfect opportunity to fine tune products and service in order to help the customer experience.But at the mo...
New research from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) shows that customer satisfaction with brands in the UK has slowed over the last year. The overall score in the July 2013 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) was 77.9 out of 100, down from 78 a year ago. This is the first time since the Index began in 2008 that levels have fallen, albeit by a small amount.The UKCSI is calculated from an o...
Despite the explosion of new channels, email is still the first choice for many customers when they want to make contact. Showing the scale of the channel over 2.8 million emails are sent every second and it is predicted that there will be over 4 billion email accounts by the end of 2015.Consumers like the built-in audit trail that email provides, along with the fact that it is simple and straight...
The internet has transformed the travel sector, as holidaymakers can now book the separate components of their break online, rather than having to go through high street travel agencies. But in such a competitive market, customer service and fast responses to consumer enquiries across multiple channels are vital if travel companies are going to thrive.However research carried out as part of the Ep...
What will the customers of the future demand? That was one of the topics discussed at the latest Eptica UK Customer Day, held in London on Tuesday 25th June. As well as an update on Eptica’s future roadmap, attendees heard first hand from customer Easyroommate on how it has transformed service in 37 countries, reducing inbound calls by 75% and increasing First Call Resolution to over 90%. Th...
Customer service at banks is again in the spotlight. Firstly, an undercover reporter from The Times found shortcomings at one of Lloyds Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints handling centres. Staff were allegedly being taught to reject potential complaints and ignore potential fraud by Lloyds salesmen. The bank has said that it identified shortcomings independently and has retrained staff ...
Staff turnover has always been a problem in a lot of customer service teams. While the UK average employee turnover rate is approximately 15%, in contact centres it averages around 25%. That means one in four agents leaves every year - although for some contact centres turnover can be as much as 60%.One of the key impacts of staff turnover is increased training costs. On average, new agents receiv...